Costa Rica Mountain biking

can be a difficult strenuous trip or a leisurely comfortable ride a day or a week. With its countless kilometers of dirt roads and paths traversing a variety of terrain.

Costa Rica has enough mountain biking routes to keep a serious biker rolling for years.

But you need neither be an enthusiast nor willing to deal with the hassle of dragging a bike along as luggage to enjoy the sport here.

Mountain bikes can be rented at most resort towns, and several local companies offer mountain bike tours of the country’s less visited areas, many of which are mellow enough for people who haven’t been on a bike for years.

A good choice for a day of pedaling or a week of pedaling is the Caribbean Coast. Almost all of the area is dirt roads and paths winding through beaches, villages and up and down mountains. You can stay on the coastal route for a more relaxed less strenuous bike tour, or ride high into the Talamanca mountains over rough terrain.

There are also multiple-day mountain bike tours, which range from a two-day exploration of the area around Cahuita and Puerto Viejo to a six-day tour of the entire southern coastal area all the way to Panama.

Bikers who bring their own wheels will find no shortage of routes in Costa Rica. The entire southern Caribbean Coast, which is crisscrossed by sparsely travelled dirt roads, is the perfect region for mountain-bike touring, as are the southern Talamanca mountains.

The Cahuita National Park has a great bike trail that runs along the coast, where you will come face to face with snakes, lizards, Pacas, Agoutis, Green & Black Frogs, red frogs,howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, Iguanas, sloths and many different species of birds and amphibians.

Stop in a quite calm cove and take a dip in the crystal clear waters.

Ride out to the point of Cahuita National Park and you can see 30 miles north to Limon and south to Punta Uva.

Lock your bike up and take a snorkeling trip out to the reef and see the hundreds of species of coral and fish that make up the largest reefs south of Belize.

From there you can bike south to Home Creek and then onto Puerto Viejo, Cockles, Punta Uva and Manzanillo, where you can bike through the Manzanillo-Gandoca Wildlife Refuge.

There are miles of roads and paths going up into the mountains, with some fabulous views of the Caribbean.

From the village of Manzanillo you can head south through the refuge on small paths to the river estuaries, where you will find a unique species of river dolphin, Caymans, Crocodiles, monkeys, otters and other exotic wild life.

Cross the rivers and go all the way to the Panamanian border.

A trip you will always remember full of unique terrain, wildlife and people. Don’t forget your camera and plenty of water.